[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
you allow one whco is not a frequenter of London clubs, but an unobtrusive member of the large body of London Liberals who have preferred to remain in their ranks with Lord Hartington, to protest against the assertion of your corre- spondent Mr. Mason, that Lord Hartington, Sir Henry James, and the Spectator have seceded from the Liberal Party P We main- tain that the Secessionists are Mr. Gladstone and those who, like Mr. Mason, are led by the glamour of a great personality to stultify themselves, and endorse that most astounding volteface which we are now called on to witness. There is little use in arguing on which side of the disrupted party (the second disrup- tion which Mr. Gladstone has effected within twelve years) the highest intelligence may be found ; but it may be of service to note the pregnant fact that the greatest figure in Parliament with all his constructive power and vast political experience, has not been able to produce a measure that even his strongest supporters will assert to be practicable as it stands.
Is it not even now apparent that the British Constitution, the unwritten, silent growth of a thousand years, cannot be adapted to a brand-new written parody of itself, a mere toy plaything for Ireland ? Such a solution of the Irish difficulty will be swept away as soon as it is given, and will prove itself to be what the Duke of Argyll has called it, an absurdity. You have yourself noted Mr. Mason's contemptuous dismissal of Ulster. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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